The epic trekking continues, so I leave Wessex to head up to the West Ridings. It’s like some Game of Drones, especially with the all the beards. Fortified by our B&B breakfast I return my friends to Merseyside and head over to Leeds. Abandoning my car in Armley (don’t think anyone noticed the difference) where I was due to stay, I got the bus into town then walked (largely relying on instinct and my geography A-level) back out to the venue I’d already attended for the warm up last week.

We usually come out of winter hibernation for the silly season of self-abuse that is the festivals when Hammerfest tempts us in mid-March. This year there was a new kid on the city block in the form of FOAD (make up your own acronym interpretation) to put a spring in our step now spring is kind of here. Set up by a few of the promoters who deal with the more extreme musical end of things in the city, and homed in the decent and underused Sound Control venue, there is an excellent line up of the cream of the underground acts plus some special treats from abroad that demands attendance, especially with it relative proximity.

It was certainly an unexpected treat to get the South Walian death metal legends up in such an esteemed local environment as Rhyl, and the night continued to be full of surprises/chaos. Fair play to Dirty Vultures Promotions for continuing to have the vision and balls in their bookings to bring them here on this short weekend tour, along with another couple of travelling bands. Added to this was a couple of local acts, one of which was a bunch of part timers who had undoubtedly blagged their way on the bill due to playing with the headliners once before.

Returning from the internal and external battering of Hammerfest via recuperative radiation fortnight by the pool and beach in Tenerife, it was really diving back in at the deep and dingy end for tonight. Though thankfully the basement Retro Bar didn’t stink quite so much of stale sweat and beer as it had on my arrival a few years previously for Palehorse here. It was that I was recalling as me and Gwyn made a late entry to the venue, having missed the grind mentalists of Magpyes unfortunately, or not as their vocalist reckoned it hadn’t been one of their better beating shows. Still the party soon picked up, with Foetal Juice on their home turf and maybe glad of a rest being half way or so through a UK and Ireland tour with the rest of this lineup to come tonight. Not flagging though, they got into the superswift rhythms of their old school death metal soon enough and even the presentation of a commemorative pair of crusty tour boxers to the crowd didn’t dampen the positive response, especially to the humour in their banter and song titles. Ireland’s Zombified took things to another serious level of harsh and precise brutality next, more of a tech death approach with guttural vocals and an impressive drummer driving things along. These, Foetal, and BTK next are all sharing a 5-way split release “A split worse than death” (among 50 other titles!) and glad to pick it up as a fine example of some of the strength in the underground extreme scene. London’s BTK (pic above) were up next, seemingly the touring partner of choice for the headliners and like the last time I’d seen them in Liverpool they were frenetically agitated in delivering their hyper-aggression death. With the added bonus of their theatrics I am also amused to hear their samples about the Los Cristianos decapitation. I had an alibi, honest.

Finally, the truculent shambles that is Newport’s Desecration (pic above). The fact that they are old hands at the morgue music game comes across well whether they are in front of thousands at Bloodstock or less than a hundred here. The three-piece overcome a steady catalogue of hiccups and disasters with some great naturally comedic banter (“thank god we’re not Slipknot, we’d be here all night”) to blast through their stripped down and relentless death with an effortless confidence, including airing the title track of their forthcoming album “Cemetery Sickness” which is also available there as a split 7” picture disc. A fine finish to a great set of bands, certainly kept me glowing into the bitter night.